A rapidly increasing population on maritime Cape Cod has generated considerable interest in alternative wastewater disposal techniques which promise to maintain high groundwater quality and promote its conservation. The authors undertake an assessment of agricultural spray-irrigation as a potential means of lessening groundwater contamination and depletion. Experimental emphasis has been placed on variations in the rates and methods of wastewater application and in the types of renovation agricultural crops placed under wastewater irrigation. Results from these studies have been highly promising and suggest that under ideal circumstances, the coupling of secondary domestic effluent to animal forage crops can bring about a degree of wastewater renovation which exceeds direct disposal to sand filter beds and approaches the goals of tertiary treatments.

"Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution." "August 1979." Includes bibliographical references. "Grant no. S-802037."